Thank You For Your Service

If you're familiar with The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, then you probably know what this week's invitation is. As we prepare for the holidays and the likelihood of new things coming into our homes, I thought it would be helpful to reflect on making space for the new by getting rid of whatever objects no longer serve us. I invite you to have fun with this and remember that thanking your items for their service can loosen any guilt or heaviness that might come up.

Transcript

Hey there everybody, This is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I'm here with this week's mindfulness meditation practice. We are closing out the month of gratitude. We messed around with this idea of the three good things if you are interested in trying it out as a daily practice, Allowing yourself to call to mind three things that you feel grateful for, Happy about. They would be three new things each day, Can't reuse them, Because we want you or anyone who's doing this practice to get into the habit of scanning for good in our minds, Even when it could be an absolutely tiny little thing. But it's this idea of both consciously when you're doing the practice itself and also unconsciously where once this becomes a regular habit, Your mind is actually scanning for these good things because it knows that it's going to have to provide that at some point at that day. So there is something to be said for the value of that and how it can make us a little bit more predisposed to appreciating and savoring and enjoying all the good things in our lives. That's really been the overarching theme for the whole month. We played with gratitude for silence, Having a silent meditation, Bringing silence in. We also did some mindful eating and drinking, Which of course is very appropriate around the holidays. And so speaking of the holidays, Now as we are preparing to phase into the month of December, What came to mind for me was this idea of, I don't know what word you would call it, You could sort of say like lightening, You could say cleansing, You could say decluttering. And because while this is not the case for everyone, During the holidays there's often this bringing of things in. Maybe you're buying new decorations or gifts that you will be given or gifts that you're buying for someone else or whatever it might be. It feels at least to me that December there's a lot of like new stuff coming in, Which is lovely. And there's also value in having space. And by that I mean having your home and anywhere else, Honestly, Workplace, Whatever it might be, To have enough emptiness and to have enough space where things don't feel cluttered. And the real, I think, Emphasis behind this for me, I haven't really shared this yet with you folks or anybody else, But I am in the final phase of becoming a feng shui consultant, Which I'm very excited about. And one of the huge elements to this is clearing out and creating space, Decluttering. And the reason being, According to feng shui, Is that, For example, If I have my phone, If I'm deciding on how to declutter a home, Because of course that just naturally happens to most of us, If I'm looking at this item and I'm thinking, Okay, Do I want to get rid of this? The question you need to ask yourself is for the amount of space that this takes up, Would it be more valuable for me to have the same amount of space filled with infinite potential? That's kind of the idea behind it. So you really do want to have much more emptiness in space. Not only is that good for chi flow, Which is all the stuff that I'm learning about, The flow of energy, Life force, If you want to call it that, And that sort of thing. But also this idea of if your home or space is too packed, There's no room for new things, New opportunities, Whatever it is that might be your heart's desire. There's no space for them to come in. So how does this connect to gratitude? Well, As I was thinking about this one, The phrase that came to my mind was the phrase, Thank you for your service, Which you may have heard, Of course, People often say that to people in the military and things like that. But the context I'm thinking about specifically is when you decide to purge items, Get rid of items, Clear things out, As you get rid of them, Thanking them for their service. And this is completely straight out of the Marie Kondo handbook, That life-changing magic of tidying up, Which has, It's been quite a few years now since it's come out, Which is kind of wild. But if you're not familiar with that, That's a big thing. So if I'm deciding, You know, I have a hundred of these mechanical pencils and I only really need five or whatever it might be, As I get rid of the other 95, I can hold them in my hand or whatever, And just say, Thank you for your service. And the nice thing about it is that doing that not only is an expression of gratitude to tie into our theme for this month, You're thanking it not only for the fact that you had it and it served some purpose for you. If you are thanking the service of like a gift, Someone gave you, I don't know, A sweater or whatever it might be, But it doesn't work for you, You can thank it for the kind and generous intention from which it was given to you, Even if it's not your style and you never got to wear it because it just doesn't work. So before you get rid of it, You're thanking it for its service. And there's a lot of different ways you can spin this. And the beauty of it is that yes, It perpetuates that gratitude and it's also, And now I'm letting it go. So there's also, I think a little bit more loosening of any potential guilt that people might feel because if, You know, Most people I think have that experience where they feel bad about giving away things that were gifts or things that, You know, They spent a lot of money on or things that, You know, Fill in the blank, Whatever is bringing up that quality of resistance and guilt around getting rid of it. But yet really when it comes down to it, It's not serving them and it's not enriching their life. It's not, To use Marie Kondo's expression, Sparking joy, Then it needs to be gotten rid of and given a new life elsewhere. And so thank you for your service will be the theme of this particular video and this month's invitation. And I bring all this up because it could be a fun opportunity maybe to look around and do some clearing out of things that have accumulated. I think we often associate spring with spring cleaning and purging, But I actually think this time of year is a great time to do that as well, Whether it's before the holidays or perhaps even after that holiday, That the holidays in that transition from the end of one calendar year into another. So that is my invitation to you and I would like for us to now allow ourselves to come into a moment of spaciousness in our practice. So I'm setting my timer for 10 minutes. With this intention, You might find yourself drawn to thinking about some of the things that you would be interested in clearing out. You might find yourself thinking about the fact that the thought of that is just too overwhelming and that you have no part of that and that's fine too. And all of those thoughts, Whatever might come up for you in this next 10 minutes of our sit are just thoughts. And when you notice that your mind is thinking, Just notice it and bring your attention back. And remember, It's not a big deal. It's that noticing that our mind has wandered that strengthens our mindful awareness. Let's go ahead and settle in. Taking those deeper belly breaths. If you ever do your meditation lying down, I think it's particularly interesting to put your hand on your abdomen and just feel how much it rises on the inhale and descends on the exhale. And in the spirit of clearing out, Playing with this idea of exhaling as fully as possible, All of that used air so that you have more space and room to invite in that much more fresh air and continuing that process again and again. Letting those deep breaths settle us, Ground us, Feeling the support of the chair or cushion or bed, And just for the fun of it, For a moment, Really savoring that connection, Savoring that support, Perhaps going so far as to feeling a little bit of gratitude for it. And then if you haven't already, Just letting your mind, Your attention rest on whatever anchor feels easy for you right now. It could be sounds, Birds, Wind, Airplanes, Sirens. And with sound, Remembering there is no good sound or bad sound. It's all just sound waves making contact with your eardrum from moment to moment. Your job is to just, Like an objective scientist, Noting, Perhaps even observing the quality of the sounds, Like a tone similar to ringing in your ears, Low tones, Perhaps like your heating system or air, And those intermittent noises that come and go as they do. If you choose to rest your attention on the breath, Just resting your awareness on wherever you can most easily sense that your body is breathing, Perhaps the rising and falling of your chest or abdomen or the sensation of air passing through your nose or mouth, Just like with sounds, Being that objective observer. And of course, You can apply all of these same qualities to resting your awareness on sensations, Either on the body in its entirety or perhaps one part like your hands or your feet, Remembering that we don't need this to be any harder than it is. So just picking what feels easy and bringing to this resting of your awareness on the anchor, Quality of lightness, Acceptance, And just being willing to be with whatever you notice right now until our meditation is done. So let's sit in silence for a while and of course check in a little bit. Noticing where the mind is and if it's wandered, Just bringing it back. No drama, No judgment, Just noticing whatever thought was preeminent in your mind in that moment. Remembering we're not pushing the thoughts away. If anything, We see them with greater clarity and precision, But we're just choosing to not follow them for this time that we sit. So just seeing it for what it is, A memory, An idea, A plan, And then just pivoting and bringing your mind back to rest on the present moment for this last minute or so of our practice. And that's our 10 minutes. So the invitation, If you are interested in exploring it, Is to, As we phase into this month of bringing things in, To maybe reflect on ways we can let things go. And of course that leads into our thank you for your service theme, Which sort of also a little bit loosely connects to our gratitude. But just playing with all of that and hopefully you'll find that it has some value for you. So as always, Thank you so much for taking this time for yourself. And thank you for allowing me to accompany you on this journey. And I will see you next week. Take care. Bye.